The variety of information handling systems is increasing constantly. With this variety comes the ever-increasing complexity of the configuration, manufacture, and assembly of the information handling systems. For example, one area that was in need of simplification included how devices were connected to an information handling system. Previously, a variety of connectors were required to connect different types of devices to the information handling system. A universal serial bus (USB) is one method utilized to address this complexity by providing a standardized interface for the connection of a variety of devices, such as keyboards, mouse, digital cameras, printers, musical devices, scanners, wireless devices, audio/visual devices such as digital cameras and video conferencing devices, fast storage units, and the like.
However, one of the problems with incorporating a Universal Serial Bus (USB) with an information handling system is having the number of ports desired on the system correspond to the number of ports supported by the interface. Previously, the number of ports supported by a USB hub was set up through an external hardware change, such as by selecting the number of ports by an Input Pin. This required extensive hardware changes by manufacturers of the system.
In certain applications, manufacturers incorporated a USB hub capable of supporting more ports than were actually included on the information handling system. Thus, the information handling system may report a greater number of ports than were actually available on the system, resulting in consumer confusion. To correct this confusion, the manufacturer had to use specific USB hubs for specific applications. Therefore, a large number of hubs were required for various applications, resulting in inefficiencies in both the manufacture and assembly of the hubs.
Consequently, it would be desirable to provide a USB hub capable of supporting a variety of ports as desired by a user and also capable of being changed without extensive hardware modifications.